The bowl is well potted with almost conical sides, supported on a low foot rim deftly cut from the clay. The interior has a rich brown-black glaze onto which has been painted, in a lighter color, eight tiers of small spots encircling the well. The exterior is more randomly decorated with specks and splashes suggesting tortoiseshell. The underside of the base is unglazed, showing the buff ware.

H. 2 1/4 in., D, 6 1/4 in.

Note: This rare pattern is also known in Chinese as man tian xing, literally "a skyful of stars", though the arrangement into rows seems better described by the term lu ban wen, 'deer spot' pattern. Either way it is an unusually painstaking technique and one which must have been admired as it appears also sometimes on fine vases of meiping shape. For an example of a similar tea bowl with a brief discussion of the pattern, likening it to certain textile patterns, see Chan Feng Yu Ru Yun, Song Yuan shidai de Jizhou yao ciqi, Zen Taste and Confucian Flavour. Song and Yuan Period Jizhou Ceramics, illus. 136, p. 219 and discussed p. 218.

Condition: Some light abrasions and scratches commensurate with age.

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